Not just any former CIA official but the head of clandestine operations such as rendition, waterboarding, torture, kidnapping and murder, all in the name of “the war on terror”.

A former CIA official at the center of the controversy over destroyed interrogation videotapes has been blocked by Justice Department officials from gaining access to government records about the incident, according to sources familiar with the case.

Federal Judge Won’t Review Destruction Of CIA Videotapes
Thursday, Jan. 10 at 12:30 p.m. ET: National Security and Intelligence
The former official, Jose Rodriguez Jr., has also told the House intelligence committee through a letter from his attorney that he will refuse to testify next week about the tapes unless he is granted immunity from prosecution for his statements, the sources said.

The panel has issued a subpoena for Rodriguez, the former chief of clandestine operations who issued the order to destroy the videotapes in 2005. He and other former CIA officials are also being blocked from gaining access to documents about the incident, sources said.

Mr. Rodriques is the retiring head of the National Clandestine Services. He oversaw the kidnapping, torture, rendition of alledged terrorists. How would you feel if his next job would be with Blackwater USA?
Well, that might just happen if we are to believe the rumours.

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr

With little fanfare, Jose A. Rodriguez Jr, who heads the National Clandestine Service (NCS) — the spies, torturers, and terrorists of the CIA — had his cover lifted about a month ago. CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the driving factor was his interest in publicly participating in minority recruitment events. The real reason could be he is interested in spending some time at his expensive home in a housing development in the northeast corner of Loudoun County, VA, with his wife Millie. He’s also retiring later this year after more than three decades with the agency.

Rodriguez is the most important man in the U.S. spy game whose name you probably never knew. When he was mentioned publicly before now, he was referred to only as “Jose.” However, we published an article about him on Wikipedia over a year ago.

Rodriguez became head of the CIA’s clandestine service in November 2004.

Jose Rodriguez is a native of Puerto Rico. Rodriguez apparently was a military attache — a MILGP or MILGRP (US Military Group) “commander” (supposedly an Army colonel) — at the US Embassy in Argentina from 1994-1996. Officially a Military Group officer advises the US ambassador on military matters and is a liason between the US Government and the host country’s security and military forces (actually, a funnel for money, arms, and intelligence). US diplomats, even military officers such as the US naval attache in Venezuela, Lt. Commander John Correa, ousted last year for espionage against Venezuela, often are CIA operatives. The CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames once posed as a military officer, and it’s likely that Rodriguez was doing so in Argentina.